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1. The Ideal Way to Shed Traditions and Embrace First Principles
- Description:
- Abstract: This printed work by Nūr al-Ḥasan b. Ṣiddīq b. Ḥasan Khan (also seen as al-Qannawjī) deals with taqlid (adherence to Islamic tradition) and ijthad (flexible interpretation of religious principles), issues that have occupied Muslim thinkers for 1,400 years. Al-Ṭarīqah al-muthlá fī al-irshād ilá tark al-taqlīd wa-ittibāʻ mā huwa al-awlá (The ideal way to shed traditions and embrace first principles) is in itself less important than the context in which it was published. The author was from the Muslim court of Bhopal in India. He was the son of a prolific author, Muḥammad Siddīq Ḥasan Khan, consort of the reigning begum of that Indian principality. The family was distinguished in the Islamic sciences and the politics of the age. The present work was published at the Jawa’ib Press in Istanbul, where several books written by both father and son were issued in Arabic. The father is known to have corresponded with Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II and presumably influenced him in his thinking. The topic of taqlid was hotly debated at this time in all parts of the Muslim world. It also was of interest to the imperial British authorities, who wished to limit its influence in the spread of Wahhabism. The volume is incomplete, lacking the final stanzas of the terminal qasidah (poem). The book has guidewords and the signatures are numbered. The printing suffers from a broken and worn type font. In the biographical literature and in library catalogues, this work is often attributed to the author’s father. It was republished in Beirut in 2000.Physical description: 59 pages ; 22 centimeters
2. The Most Wondrous of Crafts in Arrangement of Paths
- Description:
- Abstract: Badāʼiʻ al-ṣanāʼiʻ fī tartīb al-sharāʼiʻ (The most wondrous of crafts in arrangement of paths) by the Hanafi scholar Abu Bakr al-Kasani (died 1191) is a compendium of the judicial principles and practices established by the eighth century jurist Nuʿman ibn Thabit, better known as Abu Hanifa, the founder of the most widespread school of sharia (Islamic law). Al-Kasani is one of a number of medieval fuqaha’ (legal authorities) influenced by Abu Hanifa and his early followers. The work covers the fundamental tenets of Islam and the obligations of Muslims. Topics are examined in multiple facets, including historical, textual, circumstantial, and procedural. In the section on purification before prayer where no pure running water is available (tayammum, or dry ablution), for example, al-Kasani examines principles established in the Qur’an and by the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, customary practice, and the methods of performing tayammum. The last part of the work covers adab al-qadi (the conduct of judges) and includes procedure for manumission of slaves, punishment for a variety of crimes, jihad, testimony, and evidence. Al-Kasani, dubbed “king of hadith scholars” by his contemporaries, was a student of Muhammad al-Samarqandi, whose daughter, Fatima, he married. His mahr (marriage offering) was said to be this book, which he wrote for the occasion and which Fatima’s father readily accepted in preference to offerings from richer but less learned and less pious suitors. Fatima was a prominent Hanafi authority and judge in her own right who assisted her husband in his judicial opinions. Al-Kasani died in Aleppo, Syria, and is buried with Fatima bint Muhammad al-Samarqandi. The work was published in 1909−10 in Cairo in seven volumes by Muhammad Amin al-Khangi who, along with others, financed publication.Physical description: 7 volumes ; 28 centimeters
3. Exposition of Realities Explaining “Treasury of Intricacies”
- Description:
- Abstract: This six-volume work of al-shari’ah (Islamic law) is a commentary by ʻUthman ibn ʻAli al-Zaylaʻi (died 1342 or 1343) on a compendium of judgments by ʻAbd Allah ibn Ahmad Al-Nasafi (died 1310), a near contemporary of the author. Islamic legal texts are often accompanied by marginal commentaries and Tabayīn al-ḥaqāʼiq (Exposition of realities) is no exception. The main text by al-Zaylaʻi is accompanied in the margins by a commentary by Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Shilbi (died 1611 or 1612). The manuscript thus contains al-Zaylaʻi’s commentary Tabayīn al-ḥaqāʼiq on al-Nasafi’s Kanz al-daqāʼiq (Treasury of intricacies), with an untitled marginal gloss by al-Shilbi on al-Zaylaʻi’s commentary. Tabayīn al-ḥaqāʼiq is a comprehensive exposition of Hanafite legal regulations, including those relating to prayer and ritual, business transactions, marriage and divorce, fostering of children, legal procedure, and many other topics. Al-Nasafi is held in esteem by followers of Hanafite jurisprudence; al-Zaylaʻi’s commentary is also highly regarded. Little is known of al-Zaylaʻi’s life other than that he probably came from the port city of al-Zaylaʻ (also called Zeila or Saylac, in present-day Somalia) and taught in Cairo. Even less is recorded in the biographical literature about al-Shilbi. As with the other schools of Sunni law, the Hanafite tradition began well after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. Abu Hanifah (died 767 or 768) made his reputation as a teacher in Baghdad and Kufa in Abbasid Iraq. His teachings were memorized, copied, and transmitted by his students and their successors, whose works are considered authoritative. Hanafi jurisprudence is the predominant tradition in Central and South Asia, Turkey, and many other regions. The present work was published in Cairo at Bulaq Press, the government printing house, at the expense of the book merchant ʻUmar al-Khashshab, who “underwrote the printing inasmuch as students called for it, experts needed its support, and the public desired its benefits.”Physical description: 6 volumes ; 25 centimeters
4. Students' Guide
- Description:
- Abstract: Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, a Shafi’i jurist, teacher, and Sufi, was born in Egypt and studied at al-Azhar, the Sunni Islamic center of learning in Cairo. Throughout his long career (he lived about 100 years), al-Anṣārī held many positions as judge and Sufi authority. He is recognized as a major figure in medieval Sunni jurisprudence. He studied under the greatest teachers of the age and influenced later generations, being referred to by the honorific Shaykh al-Islam. Manhaj al-Ṭullāb (Students' guide) is an abridgement of Nawawī’s Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn (Path of knowledge seekers), a major juridical reference from the 13th century. It was followed by longer commentaries by numerous authors and became a standard teaching text, which was often reprinted at the Bulaq Press and elsewhere. The press was one of the principal institutions established by visionary suzerain Muḥammad ʻAlī (reigned 1805−49). Founded along modern administrative principles, it served the government and private persons by producing works of science, engineering, and history, as well as literary and Islamic classics. This copy was printed at the Bulaq Press in 1868 under the supervision of its director, Husayn Husni. The book is instantly recognizable in appearance, typography, paper, and layout as a product of this famous press. The colophon is typical of the times, containing a long encomium to Isma’il Pasha, Egypt’s ruler.Physical description: 194 pages ; 20 centimeters